we saw dr. barry this morning. she was only working for 2 hours and she was only seeing a few people. we mostly talked about christmas, and how we got through it. i told her it was mostly good, and we enjoyed it. she knew i was spending it with my mom and dad. we talked about the contact I’d had with eileen on christmas day and I told her about the email I wrote eileen on christmas eve where I reflected about our work together. she asked me if it was the first time I’d sent eileen such an email. I said that because eileen had responded well to the previous email I and Liz sent about a week ago, where we talked about hard things, that it felt important to send her this one too about our work together and telling her how much I appreciate her and how far I think we’ve come, how much progress we’ve made. I was telling dr. barry about how in our last session with Eileen, we talked about being stable. How we crave stability so badly but then when we get it we somehow seem to sabbotage it. Dr. barry said its a case of sometimes better the devil you know. That sometimes we all go back to old coping skills and mechanisms. That we are so used to doing the unstable dance, that its hard when things get stable to keep it that way. She was very understanding about all of it though. We talked about the weekend team phoning me and she said she’d put in another referral for this coming weekend. I told her how my engagement with them is mostly on a very superficial level, because I dont know most of them so I dont feel safe opening up to them. She said that was ok, that I didnt have to if I didnt want to. I am glad for the check ins though. And knowing that if things got really bad they’d be able to do something in dr. barrys absence. I dont see dr. barry again now until next Wednesday. Things will go back to normal then and I will see her twice a week again. Everyone on my mental health team is back at work from next Tuesday.
Therapy Bits 
I’m so glad you have such a supportive psychiatrist. Dr. Barry sounds like my psychiatrist though we don’t usually talk about therapy in our meetings. We mostly just talk about how I am feeling and medication side effects but I usually feel better after talking to her. It will be 24 years that I have known her. A very long time. Most people don’t see one psychiatrist in their care. I am lucky.
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Yes, you are very lucky. I will have been seeing Dr Barry 3 1/2 years in April. It doesn’t feel like it. I always feel better after our appointments as well
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when you go in the hospital, how long do you usually stay and is it mainly just to get your meds stabilized or do you have therapy sessions as well. Also, on another note, do you get Christmas presents specifically for the littles?
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When I go into hospital I normally stay at least two weeks and it’s normally to get medication adjusted and I don’t have therapy but one time I did see Eileen because Doctor Barry said I could go and see her, I do see Doctor Barry a couple of times a week when I am in there, and yes, we do get presents for the littles
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I was listening to the video of your niece and nephew opening presents and they kept saying “aunt Shirley”. Do you have an agreement among the system not to come out when you’re at your parents’ house?
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We still come out, it’s just that they don’t know us by name, and so they just call us Shirley it makes things easier
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